Breaking Down the Top 9 SD-WAN Benefits

SD-WAN has the potential to improve security, optimize cloud application access and performance and simplify network management. However, the potential benefits of SD-WAN extend far beyond its technical capabilities. They include:

1. Cost savings 
2. Faster application performance
3. Improved network security 
4. Enhanced scalability
5. Reliable connectivity and uptime
6. Increased network visibility
7. Faster deployment
8. Simplified network management
9. Better user experience

Now, let’s dig into each in a bit more detail:

Cost savings 

SD-WAN allows businesses to use a combination of lower-cost internet services such as broadband, instead of relying solely on expensive private connections, like MPLS circuits. By utilizing SD-WAN to supplement and even replace MPLS links, organizations with dispersed offices and locations can considerably reduce their overall WAN costs.

Faster application performance

Application performance is paramount in today’s business environment, where video conferencing and SaaS applications are critical for productivity. SD-WAN prioritizes traffic based on application’s importance, ensuring that critical applications such as VoIP and video conferencing receive priority and bandwidth they need. This reduces latency, increases performance and enhances the user experience.

Improved network security

SD-WAN integrates advanced security features, including Next-Gen firewall, IPS, and secure VPNs, providing end-to-end protection. It automatically detects and reduces threats, ensuring secure and encrypted data transfer across all branches and remote locations.

Enhanced scalability

For organizations looking to grow and expand their footprint, SD-WAN provides an easy and efficient way to scale their networks. Whether expanding into new markets or opening a new location across town, traditional WAN setups require significant IT resources and time to provision new circuits and equipment. SD-WAN simplifies this process by allowing new sites to be added seamlessly through software-defined deployment and configurations.

Reliable connectivity and uptime

By leveraging SD-WAN intelligent path selection and dynamic failover, organization gain continuous, high-performance connectivity. It optimizes traffic routing to the best available link, minimizing downtime and delivering reliable service, even during network disruptions.

Increased network visibility

Branch offices are where most business transactions occur. SD-WAN provides centralized monitoring to deliver real-time insights into network health and application performance, helping to identify and address issues more effectively. Additionally, SD-WAN enables administrators to enforce security policies, adjust bandwidth allocation and optimize traffic— all in real time. 

Faster deployment

Compared to traditional solutions which often involve long setup times and complex configurations, SD-WAN enables substantially faster deployment. Network administrators can deploy, manage, and maintain their SD-WAN through a centralized console, significantly reducing the time and effort necessary to configure and maintain the network. This simplified management allows organizations to be more responsive to business needs.

Simplified network management

With Centralized management, SD-WAN streamlines network administration. Real-time analytics simplify configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting, reducing the complexity of managing multiple remote sites and improving operational efficiency

Better user experience

SD-WAN has revolutionized the way businesses manage and scale their networks, and it has become the backbone of modern businesses. By embracing SD-WAN, companies can position themselves to thrive in a digital and cloud first environment, ensuring their infrastructure is ready to meet the demands of customers. 

Forcepoint Secure SD-WAN delivers enterprise grade security and high-performance networking in a single solution. It offers advanced threat protection, centralized management, and dynamic traffic steering, ensuing secure and reliable connectivity across distributed networks. Organizations can reduce operational cost, simplify management and boost network protection against evolving threats. 

Talk to an expert today to get a demo of Forcepoint Secure SD-WAN and see if it’s right for your business.